Topic >> science

On November 22, 2009, the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species, former child actor turned Christian evangelist Kirk Cameron will be distributing 50 thousand free copies of the book at top colleges and universities with a new 50 page introduction. Written by partner in crime Ray Comfort, this new addition aims to discredit Darwin by calling him a racist, a misogynist and connecting his theory of evolution to Adolph Hitler

As described by Cameron, this new introduction provides a balanced view of creationism, while exposing the various myths surrouding evolution. As evidence, the text also cites a number of scientists who believed in God, including Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955), Isaac Newton (1642 – 1727), Copernicus (1473 – 1543), Francis Bacon (1561 – 1626), Michael Faraday (1791 – 1867), Louis Pasteur (1822 – 1895) and Johannes Kepler (1571-1630)… All dead. What?! No living scientists? Surely they exist.

Kirk Cameron introduces this new “Origin of Species” in the clip below.

As to provide some additional background on Ray Comfort, in the clip below he describes the divine inspiration behind the banana, which he calls the “Atheists worst nightmare.”

On a humid July morning 40 years ago today, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin climbed aboard the most dangerous vehicle man had ever built, on a voyage to the moon.

I was two and half years old. I remember that day, or at least have convinced myself that I remember it, sitting in front of an old black and white television watching a streak of light hurtle towards the stars.

Like most boys growing up, I was fascinated by all things space and dinosaurs. While interest in the Jurassic and Cretaceous eventually faded, the love of space and space travel, did not. Astronomy books, science-fiction novels, movies, I couldn’t get enough. I was a certified space geek.

When I went off to college I decided to study aerospace engineering, with the dream of working one day for NASA or JPL, but soon realized I had little of the prerequisite discipline necessary for that field of study, ie the math. And there was a lot of it. So I switched to Journalism, which had only slightly more math than English. But my interest in all things space never waned.

Barely a year into my studies I watched in horror as the shuttle Challenger exploded into a million pieces across the Atlantic. I attended no class that day, not even the Astronomy elective I was taking. I remember President Reagan’s moving tribute later that same evening: “We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved good-bye and slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God…”

There have certainly been other triumphs and disasters since, but for me, none quite so much like the day humankind took their first steps on the moon.

In honor of 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 launch, the JFK Library and Museum explores the mission in extraordinary detail at WeChooseTheMoon.com. The site tracks the mission in realtime as it happened, creating a thoroughly immersive and cool experience. Be sure to check it out.

Looking back over these past 4 decades as a man in his early 40s, I had hoped by now we would have at least planted a flag, any flag, in the red sands of Mars. But unfortunately, no. In fact it’s been 37 years since we last walked the on the face of the moon. And now, as I approach middle age, it seems unlikely that either will happen, or happen again, in my lifetime.

“This legislation works to ensure that our society recognizes the dignity and sacredness of human life,” said Brownback. “Creating human-animal hybrids, which permanently alter the genetic makeup of an organism, will challenge the very definition of what it means to be human and is a violation of human dignity and a grave injustice.”

This important piece of legislation is co-sponsored by nearly 20 other like-minded individuals who refuse to blur the lines between man and beast, and should be the Senate’s top priority. Prohibiting mad scientists from creating man-beasts is so much more important than health care or any of those other trifles the Senate is currently debating.

Give me a break. Granted there is some legitimate research going on in Britain, but it is not as the bible-thumping conservatives would present it.

Blue whales are returning to Alaska in search of food and could be re-establishing an old migration route several decades after they were nearly wiped out by commercial whalers, scientists say.

The endangered whales, possibly the largest animals ever to live on Earth, have yet to recover from the worldwide slaughter that eliminated 99 percent of their number, according to the American Cetacean Society. The hunting peaked in 1931 with more than 29,000 animals killed in one season.

Here’s hoping the former vice-presidential candidate’s penchant for hunting big game doesn’t kick in. These magnificent beasts wouldn’t stand a chance against a harpoon-wielding Sarah Palin.